euro weekly news - costa blanca south 26 march - 1 april 2015 issue 1551

26 MARCH - 1 APRIL 2015 WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COMISSUE NO. 1551 TRUST WE DO!our advertisers

Stop Press! DONT MISS OUR PROPERTYSUPPLEMENT INSIDE, PAGES 45-60

TWO local people were amongstthe victims of the Germanwingsflight that crashed into the Alps,killing all those on board.

One from Lorca and anotherfrom Aguilas were passengers onthe fl ight that came down onTuesday, March 24.

At time of going to press, themayors of the two Murcia munic-ipalities had confirmed the iden-tities of the two passengers andcontacted their relatives, al-though names had not been re-vealed to the general public.Both town halls cancelled officialacts and remained on stand-byto assist the missing mens fami-lies in whatever way they could.

One hundred and fifty passen-gers and crew were believed tohave been on board the plane.

The small village of Meolans-Revel in France became thefocal point of the emergency ser-vices, as by 4.30pm searches ofthe local area revealed pieces of

fuselage, wreckage and deadbodies.

Aviation and police officialsstated that the rugged terrain,adverse weather conditions anddarkness falling at about 6.30pmin the area had hindered therescue operation.

French President FrancoisHollande said just after theevent: It is unlikely that therewill be any survivors.

He also confirmed that 42 ofthe passengers were Spanish;however, the Spanish deputyprime ministers office statedthat 45 people on board hadSpanish surnames.

The Germanwings Airbus tookoff from El Prat Airport inBarcelona at 9.35am on Tues-day, but disappeared off radarsat around 11am. It crashed inthe mountains near Barcelon-nette, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, according to Frenchmedia outlets.

Locals killed in Alps aircrash

CORD

ONPR

ESS

TOURISM in the Valencia Region is be-ing promoted in Paris.

The Ministry of Economy, Industry,Tourism and Employment of Valencia isattending the world tourism fair in the

French capital, which is celebrating its40th edition.

Under the umbrella of Turespaa,Valencian destinations include SantaPola, El Campello, Javea and

Guardamar del Segura.The fair is significant for the Valencia

Regions tourism as France is second,behind the UK, for internationaltourists. Last year 941,221 French

tourists visited the region, spending762 million. Valencia is the fourthmost visited destination by the Frenchin Spain and has continuously seenmore visitors since 2012.

NEWSEWN 26 March - 1 April 2015 / Costa Blanca South www.euroweeklynews.com2

Valencia Region on a mission in Paris

FOLLOWING the bank holidays bad weath-er, thoughts are now turning to Easter andhopes for better conditions.

The success of the Easter season is oftenmarked by the weather with much of thetourism coming from domestic travellerswho make last-minute bookings. A positiveEaster is often the barometer for how suc-cessful the summer season will be.

Human resources company Adecco says a7 per cent growth in employment is expect-ed for this Easter and Renfe is running addi-tional trains from Madrid to Alicante with anextra 8,000 seats available. Holy Week alsomarks the start of the main tourist season atAlicante-Elche airport with most companiesincreasing flight services ready for the sum-mer from the end of March.

INDEXNews 1 - 37

Finance 39 - 44

Leapy Lee 61

Daily TV 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74

Time Out 76 - 77

Letters 78

Health & Beauty 80 - 82

Food 83 - 86

Homes & Gardens88 - 89

Services 92 - 97

Classifieds 98 - 100

Motoring 101 - 102

Sport 103 - 104

SEASON STARTS: More flights from Alicante-Elche airport from end of March.

Hopes for Easter sunto bring in tourists

THE region of Murcia could befined for not putting in placemanagement plans to protectnatural areas included in theEUs Natura 2000 nature protec-tion scheme.

Over 23 per cent of the landarea within the Region is includ-ed in this protection scheme,spread across 14 different ar-eas, but none of the areas have

yet established any manage-ment plans as requested by theEU.

Plans were meant to be inplace by December 2014. Murciasaid the delays are a combina-tion of the workload within theDepartment of the Environmentand resistance to the proposedplans on the part of farmers andother business concerns, but if

they cant justify the delays tothe European Commission thenthey could be fined. Failure toact could also result in the lossof European funding for ruraland agricultural development.

Natura 2000 is a network ofnature protection areas withinthe European Union, made up ofspecial areas of conservationand marine sites.

Travelling artTWO Elche artists havetravelled to Bangladesh toparticipate in two art exhi-bitions; one at the Univer-sity of Dhaka and the sec-ond at the ShilpokalaAcademy of Chittagong.

Miniature CrevillenteARTIST Juan Ferrandezhas created miniaturemodels of landmark build-ings of Crevillente and themunicipality. The exhibitionof work is open until April11 in Calle Corazon de Jesus from 6-9pm Mondayto Saturday.

Lights offCARTAGENA is joining theWorld Earth Hour initiativeon Saturday and will turnoff the lights at 10pm atthe Palacio Consistorial in abid to raise awarenessabout environmental is-sues.

Flamenco teachingTHE Virgen de la Puertaschool in Orihuela, one ofthe poorest schools in theprovince, has won theAward for Teacher Actionwith a project that hasbeen able to instill poetryin the classroom throughflamenco.

Vatican performanceTHE Conservatory Choirof Orihuela celebratedtheir sixth anniversary inthe Vatican. The 70-strong choir sang fivepieces.

Social centreA NEW social centre hasbeen inaugurated in El Es-corratel, Orihuela by MayorMonserrate Guillen.

Car fireFIREFIGHTERS from theBaix Vinalopo were calledto the A70 motorway at Alicante when a car burstinto flames. The vehiclewas completed burnt out inthe fire.

ewswatchNFined for no management plans

Its time tospring forward!

THISSaturday night, March28, its time to put the clocksforward an hour. Losing anhours sleep is the price wepay to welcome back thoselong, sunny evenings.

Car to tramA CAR jumped the securityfence and landed on thetram track at the stop ofIsleta on line four, headedtowards Alicante.

Gang trialTHE trial has begun thisweek in Alicante of those ac-cused in the shooting be-tween two rival family clanswhich occurred in San Vi-cente del Raspeig in July2013. Over 20 bullet holeswere counted and police ini-tially made 21 arrests.

Half marathonAROUND 3,000 runners tookpart in Elches 43rd halfmarathon which was won byMoroccan HassaneAhouchar.

Pets allowedDISABLED pets are now al-lowed on public transport inMurcia. The change in law isfollowing a campaign abouta dog called Moma who usesa set of wheels after beingleft partially paralysed.

No linkELCHES Compromis candi-date for mayor, Mireia Molla,said it is shameful that theConsell has not requested atrain connection from Ali-cante-Elche airport to thecity to improve connections.

NEWS 26 March - 1 April 2015 / Costa Blanca South 3EWNTRUST our advertisers WE DO!

We had reserved our tickets for the tour,but we missed it. When we arrived back atthe ship they told us about the attack andwe were in shock. It was chaotic, a couplefrom Mallorca explained upon arriving in Palma onboard the Costa Fascinosa cruise ship, involved inthe terrorist attacks last week in Tunisia.

Quote of the Week

A man out partying in Madrid with friends de-cided six stab wounds received during a fightwere certainly not a good enough reason toruin an evening out and continued to drink ata bar until his friends eventually called for anambulance hours later.

million is the number of tourists thatvisited Spain from abroad in the firsttwo months of this year. The UK pro-

duced the most visits, followed by France andGermany.

6.5 And finally...Number of the week

FOR the last week of Lent (leading to Good Friday)and throughout Easter, Holy Week or SemanaSanta will be celebrated throughout Spain.

Semana Santa is an event that truly envelopesSpains love of religious pageantry, and one thatshould be experienced at least once in a lifetime.

Holy Week is the annual commemoration of thePassion of Christ, celebrated by Catholic brother-hoods and fraternities, draped in hooded robes thatdate back hundreds of years, who undertake thePenance Processions on the spectator-crammedstreets of almost every Spanish town and city.

The passionate roll of the costaleros bearing thehuge floats, and the mournful trumpets that accom-pany images of Christ and the Virgin Mary evoke

another world, and the ambience and aroma lingersover the cries of the wailing saeta singers.

The stars of the show are the processions. Everybrotherhoods penance is to carry the magnificentpasos or floats. These masterpieces (many sculpt-ed by artists and some hundreds of years old) typi-cally weigh more than a ton, and will normally beaccompanied by sorrowful marching bands.

Dont be surprised if for a moment the paradestops as an outburst of flamenco song wails out inthe night air. It is sung from one of the balconies inthe narrow streets by a saeta singer, who in timesgone by spontaneously cried out when so totallyovercome with fervour that only a flourish of fla-menco would be enough to convey their emotions.

Prepare to be amazed!RELIGIOUS SPECTACLE: Holy Week processions take place throughout Spain.

klub

lu /

Shut

ters

tock

.com

AN Alicante man was oneof the passengers onboard the second cruiseship which arrived inTunisia as terrorist at-tacks took place.

The man, named asTomas, was on board theCosta Fascinosa cruiseship which docked in Tu-nis just before the at-tacks occurred at theBardo museum. CostaCruises which run thecruise ship said three oftheir passengers haddied, eight were injuredand another two wereunaccounted for. Thecompany, along with MSCCruises has now sus-pended all stopovers inTunis after gunmenopened fire, kil l ing 23people including 20 for-eign tourists.

Upon arriving in thePort of Palma in Mallorca,

Tomas, who was travel-ling in a group, said: Itwas surreal, as he wasin the museum just min-

utes before the attackstook place. He said theatmosphere on board theship was tense.

EWN4 www.euroweeklynews.com NEWS26 March - 1 April 2015 / Costa Blanca South

Stormsstrike

GALE-FORCE windshit the Costa Calidaover the bank holidayweekend and snowfallwas recorded inthe north-west ofMurcia.

Oslo visitMURCIAS touristboard is in Oslo topromote the CostaCalida. Norwegiantourists accountedfor 3.5 per cent offoreign visitors toMurcia in 2014.

Dolphin diesA FEMALE dolphin diedon the beach at LaManga despite effortsto save it by the MurciaRegion Wildlife Recov-ery Centre. It is be-lieved the animal diedfrom a viral condition.

NEWS EXTRA

A MAN received burns to his hand andr ight forearm dur ing a f i re at h ishome in Avenida Diego Ramirez inTorrev ie ja. He a lso suf fered f romsmoke inhalation.

It is believed the blaze started inthe kitchen from a pan on the stovewhen the man left to attend to a 20-month-old child. When he returnedthe f ire had started and the emer-gency services were called.

Due to the intense smoke, LocalPolice and Guardia Civil officers evac-

uated a dozen homes in the immedi-ate vicinity. One of the affected resi-dents pointed out that if the fire hadoccurred when the Friday market wason, the emergency services would nothave been able to access the f i reeasily, due to the hundreds of streetstalls.

It is another reason why they arecalling for the relocation of the mar-ket; something that has been dis-cussed and in the planning for thelast four years.

A LIVE Civil War grenade has been deactivated in LaUnion. It was discovered by a walker and the specialistexplosives team was called in to deactivate and destroythe device. Recently a similar device was discovered bytrainee military divers in the Mar Menor. Civil War ordi-nance is regularly found in the area.

Police advise the public not to touch any suspect de-vices as they could still explode.

Live grenade found A dozen homesevacuated after

kitchen fire

Spanish tourists escapeTunisia terror attacks

HIS week wil l see thestart of major transfor-mat ions in our townsand villages as SemanaSanta approaches and

the b iggest fest iva l season inSpain this side of Christmas burstsonto the streets.

Semana Santa (Holy Week) andEaster is a time of year that liter-ally transforms towns and citiesacross this region.

But while we think about spend-ing time enjoying the spectacle,there is a price to pay.

If you are one of the millions ofpeople l iv ing here amongst thesplendour of the parades andneed to get to work, or have ahospital appointment, or need toget the kids to school, you mightwant to think about the difficultiesthat may arise when you discovera one-tonne float standing outside

your garage one morning. You willneed to be a l i t t le prepared toavoid f rustrat ion th is week, aseverybody involved in the celebra-tions will be oblivious to the factthat you need to work.

Because of the changes that oc-cur before the festival - temporarystreet barriers, road closures, di-versions and such that will surelybe put in place - moving aroundmay be difficult.

Typically most small shops closefor the whole week, and fromMaundy Thursday to Easter Sun-day traffic is closed off in city cen-tres. Forewarned is forearmed, asthey say.

If you think that Holy Week willinterfere in anyway with your dailyroutine (getting to work, etc) askat your local town hall for a guide.

And be sure to do your shoppingearly!

T

Our ViewReady for Easter?

Have your say and leave your comments at www.euroweeklynews.com

SIX administrative assis-tants at health centresspanning the Departmentof Torrevieja have beendismissed as part of a re-structuring of TorreviejaHealth, the companymanaging the depart-ment.

They said the dismissalswere justified due to thedecrease in the populationand, in theory, a decreasein the number of patientsvisiting health centresthanks to the introductionof electronic prescriptions.

However, unions haverejected these claims anddenounced the dis-missals, warning that to-day most hospital ser-vices and health centreshave minimum person-nel and these redundan-cies cause a major defi-ciency in the quality ofpatient care.

Torrevieja Hospital andits network of centresnow serve 156,000 po-tential users who areholders of the assigneddepartmental health card.

NEWS 26 March -1 April 2015 / Costa Blanca South 5EWNTRUST our advertisers WE DO!

Cutbacks seeTorrevieja healthworkers sacked

A THOUSAND Alicantinos left the province in thepast year to live abroad.

Despite the winds of economic recovery blowing,the number of people who decide to leave theprovince to try their luck abroad is increasing.

Last year 3,225 people packed their bags to go toanother country, according to data released by theNational Statistics Institute. Of these just over1,000 were Spanish nationals, the rest were for-eigners who decided to return to their country oforigin or go to another to find work.

Residents areleaving Alicante


Torrevieja towelcome firstcruise ship inSeptember

TORREVIEJA is to welcomea cruise ship to its port forthe first time ever.

The Amadea ship, almost200 metres long and 23 me-tres wide, is due to arriveon the afternoon of Septem-ber 22 and will potentiallybring with it 620 passen-gers, mostly of Germanorigin.

The ship will dock outsideof the port area with pas-sengers being moved to theharbour on small boats.

The stop is part of aMediterranean cruise withTorrevieja in betweenstopovers at Tangiers andPalma de Mallorca.

The Amadea is the samecruise ship that stopped inBenidorm a few months agowith German companyPhoenix Reisen already say-ing there are plans for morecruises to arrive in Torrevie-ja next year.

THE former mayor of SanFulgencio has been sentencedto 17 months in prison.

Prison sentences were alsoissued by Orihuela Court to for-mer councillors and technicaladvisers. Jose Mora got 16months; Mariano Marti, Jose

Angel Varo and Jose AntonioBernabeu all received sen-tences of eight months, andFrancisco Ballester fourmonths.

The cases against them re-late back to 2000 concerningthe construction of eight blocks

of flats in Urbanisation La Mari-na in 2010 on land earmarkedfor sports activities. The landwas sold to developers for 4.2million with those in court ac-cused of irregularities regard-ing the sale and the permis-sions granted for thedevelopment.

The judge said these werecontrary to the planning regu-lations.

Trinidad Martinez (PSOE) hasalso been banned from holdingpublic office for nine years andMariano Marti (APFSU) hasbeen banned for eight yearsfrom holding public office.

The ruling absolved SimoneElster, Maria Teresa Terres andLuisa Alberola.

Youth expoTHE fourth edition ofTorreviejas Expo-Youthevent is being held today(Thursday) in the Inter-national Auditorium with56 participating institu-tions and companies of-fering studying, trainingand job advice.

Lottery winONCE lottery paid out300,000 in Orihuelawith ticket number42793. The ticket wassold by a seller work-ing in the Vega BajaHospital.

Top bandSPAINS top girl band,Sweet California, is per-forming in Torrevieja onApril 4 at 9.30pm at theEras de la Sal. Ticketscost 14.50 throughwww.ticketmaster.es andwww.elcorteingles.es

Former mayorand councillorsface jail terms

Youth unemployment MURCIA has the fourth worst unemployment rate in Spain.

According to a study by an employment consultancy relatingto job figures for young people aged 25 and under, Murcia isreported as having one of the highest rates in the country with58.4 per cent without work, a rise of 90 per cent over the lastseven years. The national unemployment rate of those aged 25and under is 51.8 per cent.

Castilla La Mancha has the worst rate at 62.3 per cent.

NEWS EXTRA


ORIHUELA has begun todemolish the wall andfence that prevented pas-sage on the seafront ofAgua Marina, Cabo Roig.

Councillor for Town Plan-ning, Antonio Zapata, saidmunicipal crews have pro-ceeded to tear down thewall and fence that waserected by neighbours tostop the public from walk-ing by. Zapata said it was along, legal battle of twoyears between the inhabi-tants of the residentialzone who went to thecourts of Elche and Ori-huela to fight the decision.

Once the fence is downthe walkway will be opento the public.

The 2,000 bill of carry-ing out the work will haveto be paid for by the AguaMarina residents who putup the wall and fencingwithout permission.

Illegal wall on seapath is removed

GONE: Illegal wall comes down opening up thepublic pathway in Cabo Roig.

ALICANTE is to becomethe f irst Spanishprovince in which youngRussian residents mayobtain a valid certificateof studies approved intheir country of origin.

The Deputy Minister ofTourism, Joaquin Al-baladejo, has met inMoscow with representa-tives of the Ministry ofEducation of the RussianFederation to outline the

details of this new pro-posal, which is due tocome into force from thenext school year.

The initiative aims tocollaborate with Russianfamilies living in Spain sothat youngsters do notlose the connection withtheir customs and tradi-tions. In addition, theycan learn the history andculture of their homecountry as well as that of

their Spanish home.To carry out this pro-

ject, the tourist boardwill conduct a study tofind the location and themost suitable facilities inwhich to develop theseoff ic ial exams, whichmainly take place be-tween the months ofMarch and June. Al-baladejo said that cur-rently in Spain there isonly one official centrethat can perform thesetests, but its dimensionsand capacity are limited,meaning that Al icanteProvince would be themain venue in which todo the exams.

Alicante remains themain destination forRussian tourists withinValencia, and 2014recorded more than110,000 visitors.


Dog park forSan Pedro

SAN PEDRO hasopened a new dogpark in the Barrio deLos Antolinos. Dogswill be allowed to ex-ercise off the lead andrun in open spaces.

Reef tourismAN artificial reef isto be created offthe coast ofAguilas, Murcia, inorder to stimulatediving tourism inthe municipality.

New nursery A NEW municipalnursery has opened inLa Manga for childrenunder the age ofthree. The mayor ofSan Javier officiallyopened the facilities,which has places for53 children.

NEWS EXTRA

THE 12th stat ic and radio-controlled naval model exhibitionis under way in Torrevieja.

Situated within the Park ofNations, the exhibition is on dis-play until April 17. It has been or-ganised by the Sea and Salt Mu-seum and the Association of NavalModel l ing of Torrevieja, whichwas created in 2004 and consistsof more than 90 members ofvarious national it ies and of al lages.

Since i tsfirst editionin 2004, thee xh i b i t i o nhas housedmore than1,600 mod-els from120 clubsand associ-at ions, at-t r a c t i n gmore than 220,000 visitors, mak-ing it one of Torreviejas mostpopular exhibit ions. There iseverything on display from Egypt-

ian war ships,gal leons, tugsand f ishingboats, cruisers,aircraft carriers,

yachts and battleships as well asexamples of military models.

Following the opening ceremonythe radio-controlled boats were

sailed on the lake and on April 5from 11am there is the Sai l ingRegatta.

The exhibition is open Tuesdayto Sunday from 10am-2pm andfrom 5-8pm and every Saturdaythere will displays of the radio-controlled boats on the lake in thePark of Nations.

Costa Blanca to offerRussians valid study

certifications

Torrevieja casts off withmost popular exhibition

RADIO-CONTROLLED: Boats will be out on the lakeevery Saturday.

ON SHOW: Model boat show underway at Park of Nations exhibition hall.


ALICANTES Faculty ofMedicine at the UniversityMiguel Hernandez is usingcorpses to allow studentsand doctors to testsurgical techniques whichcan then be applied in theoperating theatre.

This has been madepossible thanks to thelarge number ofdonations from families of

the bodies of loved onesand the construction of anew building on theSevero Ochoa de SantJoan campus.

The new building hastwo practice rooms, onefor medical students anda clinical simulation areawhich can providestudents and doctors withvery real-like conditions,

making the school apioneer in the field ofmedical training.

Each year the Faculty ofMedicine hosts dozensof courses for doctorsfrom all over the worldto practise surgicaltechniques including arth-roscopic surgery, a mini-mally invasive surgicalprocedure to examinejoints, and breastreconstruction.

Recently, 30 Russianspecialists arrived inAlicante to use thefacilities.

Professor Sanchez delCampo explained that theFaculty of Medicine is theonly one in Spain to havefacilities of this type sodoctors can test theirskills. A lot of peoplerecognise that the bodiescan be useful for othersto learn from, he said.

THE recent storms which have crashed along the coastof the Vega Baja have disrupted much of the work ofpreparing the beaches, which had taken place ready forthe bank holiday weekend and Easter.

The beaches of Pilar de la Horadada, Orihuela Costa,Torrevieja and Guardamar del Segura were buffeted bystrong winds with gusts reaching up to 60 kilometresan hour, destroying walkways, sunbeds and umbrellas.

Where the deadhelp the living

Storm demolishesbeach preparations


RACING car driver Luke Mustoo hascompleted the first meeting in the TimeAttack 2015 series in Calafat.

The Euro Weekly News met up withthe 27-year-old from Almoradi a fewweeks ago ahead of his return to racingfor the new season after getting his ownRenault Clio and getting it race ready.

Lukes best time on the track was1.47:1, putting him in last place in hiscategory, but it was a result Luke wasexpecting as it was the first time theyhad been able to fully test the car. Weknew that the first test would not beeasy, it was the first time the car was

out on track after a long transforma-tion, a track where I had only run onceand we had many tuned Hondas in ourcategory. We now know where the fail-ures are and the corrections that needto be made for the forthcomingrounds, he explained.

Luke said they also got off to a diffi-cult start following a nasty accident inthe paddock which delayed the start.

Luke and team Mustoo will be at theAlbacete circuit for a track day on April5 and then back in Albacete on June 6for the second round of the Time Attackchampionship.

Race car debutRACE TIME: Driver Luke starts the Time Attack 2015 season.


TRICIA LEE, the newly-appointed fundraiser for PaulCunningham Nurses Charity, is looking towards next yearas she is planning a 2016 calendar for the charity.

Tricia is asking all keen photographers to submit suitableentries under the theme boats or seascapes.

All entries will be judged by a professional photographerand the winning entries will be published, with the artistsname, on the calendar. The 12 winners will also receive a10 voucher to be spent at any of the three PaulCunningham Charity shops.

Closing date is July 1; for full rules and to enter, [email protected]

By Robert W BarnesCAMPOVERDE Residents Associationare now three weeks into a homecomputer discussion group, but due tothe success of the group, members willin future be meeting at Unit Four, PlazaFlorida in Campoverde.

Until recently, people from the villagemet in Restaurante El Clavel, discussingproblems with their electronic devices,

over a coffee but the venue was a littlerestricted in both seating andbandwidth/speed.

Byte Commander Henry explainedthat the meetings have no fixed agendaand are definitely not a teachingsession.

The discussion group now meetsbetween 10-11.30am everyWednesday.

MURCIA scientists areworking on attempts toconvert sewage residueinto bio-fuel.

The regional governmentis backing the project,known as Ignis-Fungus, ina bid to produce a viableecological fuel through theuse of fungi in water treat-ment plants that producelarge quantities of residue.

Bio-fuelplans

Get snapping for 2016charity calendar!

Computer groupgets a new home


ECOLOGISTS are callingfor the removal of 3,000plants from the Condadode Alhama resort in Mur-cia.

The Ecologists in Actiongroup are complaining thatthe development, in thesouth west of the CostaCalida, have over 3,000

Fountain Grass (Pennise-tum setaceum) plants in anarea between the resortand the RM-23 motorway.The plant is native to partsof Eastern and tropicalAfrica and the Middle Eastand is considered an exoticinvasive species in Spain.

The hardy grasses, withpurple flowers heads, areable to withstand droughtand grow quickly makingthem a popular choice, butthe ecologists group saythey threaten nativespecies and can increasethe threat of wildfires andcall for it to be removed,particularly in the Alhamaarea which is within thedrainage basin of the LosSaladares de Guadalentinprotected area. Ecologistsin Action are calling for itsremoval and call on theRegional Government tofine those who plant it.

THE AVE high speed train is to arrive in Elche asquickly as possible, said the Minister for Develop-ment, Ana Pastor.

Pastor said the work plans were advanced andconfirmed there is sufficient budget to carry outthe work as quickly as possible, although no datehas been finalised.

The AVE will serve Elche on the section fromMonforte del Cid and Murcia which is budgeted at6.5million. Whilst not in Elche city itself, Pastorsaid there was a project to connect via a nearbystation to offer better connectivity with the districtsof the municipality and the cities of Alicante andMurcia.

Ecologists call forremoval of plants

AVE as soonas possible


Home thanksTHE Elche ChildrensHome has sent itsthanks to the organis-ers of the St PatricksDay Parade at CaboRoig for allowing itsvolunteers to join inand do a bucket col-lection to raise funds.

Cycle laneA NEW cycle lane andpath for pedestriansis planned on theRM314 from LosBelones, past La Man-ga Club and on toPortman.

Easter infoORIHUELA has pro-duced 18,000 leaflets,of which 6,000 are inEnglish, with informa-tion about Holy Week,which has been de-clared of InternationalTourist Interest.

NEWS EXTRA

THE Science Museum of theVega Baja is to double itsspace and receive an extra50,000 for staffing.

The two rooms that makeup the Museum of Science(MUDIC) located on the Ori-huela campus of the Univer-sity Miguel Hernandez, arebeing enlarged to occupy theentire building of La Noria IIwhich will incorporate its twoexisting facilities, a planetar-ium and a space dedicatedfor students.

The refurbishment will becompleted before the end ofthis academic year accordingto Orihuelas councillor forEducation, Rosa Martinez,who said there was greatdemand from schools re-questing to visit the exhibi-tion hall. As a result, thebudget for staff and guideswill also be increased.

Since opening in 2008, themuseum has attracted25,000 schoolchildren.

ScienceMuseum

expansion FOR the first time since the startof the economic crisis, there hasbeen a boost in business creationin Alicante.

Statistics reveal that in the lastyear 191 new businesses havebeen created, including 111shops and 80 catering establish-ments, compared to the 144which have closed, leaving a pos-itive balance of 47 establish-ments; a recovery that is notice-able especially in the traditionalcentre of the city.

The impact of tourism is citedas one of the causes of this im-provement. In the past year, thenumber of travellers staying inAlicante rose 9 per cent com-pared to 2010, thanks to the627,000 visitors who came andthe 1.5 million overnight staysregistered, resulting in a goodyear for Alicante as a tourist des-tination.

The study was prepared by so-ciologists based on a census thatincludes the type of business,

size, brand, location, and eco-nomic activity, according towhich there are 3,415 establish-ments that develop retail business,as well as hospitality, catering andentertainment businesses in thecentre of Alicante.

Of these, 2,760 are open andthe others closed a lower percent-

age than that recorded in Madrid.The City Council agreed with the

findings of the study sayingThere are more openings andpremises available. They are cre-ating new businesses and mod-ernising the commercial fabricthanks to online sales and imageupdating of many establishments.

Business begins toboom once again

BOOST: 80 catering establishments opened in Alicante in the past year.

NEWS 19EWNwww.euroweeklynews.com 26 March - 1 April 2015 / Costa Blanca South

MURCIA is introducing a bicycle hirescheme across the city.

With 300 bikes in place by Easter,the plan is to eventually bring in 600bikes that will be available for hire inMurcia for less than 4 a day.

The MUyBICI bike stations will belocated in several locations includingthe Glorieta de Espaa, Plaza Circular,Plaza de Europa, Plaza de la Mercedand Santa Isabel wi th one in thePlaza de Santa Catalina already open.

Users will be able to ac-cess the bikes through acard-based system whichcan be purchased at thebike banks themselves oronl ine v ia www.muybic i .org or through theTourist Information Officein the square in front ofthe cathedral.

The bikes can be pickedup and dropped off at anylocation.

Bike hire costs 48.40for a years membership,21.78 for a month, or3.63 per day.

There has been an in-vestment of over 1.4 mil-lion in the scheme.

New transportfor Murcia

Super fit mobilityagents requiredELCHE is looking for more agents to operate the UrbanMobility Unit within the city.

The unit serves for operational purposes of the LocalPolice and will have powers exclusively on traffic; reg-ulating traffic and issuing penalties for violations.

However concerns have been raised amongst thosealready applying, as applicants will need to have thesame physical fitness as that of a police officer, despitetheir differing roles. Applicants will have to passmandatory physical tests which include being able tosprint 60m in less than nine seconds for men and 10.6seconds for women and swim 50m in 51 seconds formen and 56 for women.

NEW group CLARO Ori-huela has been presentedto show the support forthe political party basedon the Orihuela Costa.

The group, comprisingpeople of different profes-sions and experiences,has come to believe thatCLARO has a future, notonly in Orihuela Costa butalso in Orihuela City andneighbouring villages.

The partys Bob Houlis-ton said: The political sit-uation in Orihuela has be-come increasingly

confused with division inthe Popular Party (PP)and fragmentation amongparties of the left. PedroMancebo has announcedthat he is standing downfrom front-line politics andhis party, Centro LiberalRenovador (CLR), has notclearly stated that theywill contest the local elec-tions in May. New partiesare emerging which willfurther confuse the situa-tion.

Council lor Houlistonadded: In this context,

CLAROs image and repu-tation as a non-ideologicalparty from neither the leftnor the right, formed bythose living in OrihuelaCosta to correct deficien-cies in the political man-agement of the coast andbased on principles ofhonesty and efficient gov-ernment, has attracted in-creasing support in Ori-huela and surroundingvillages.

After several months ofcontact and participationin CLARO open meetings

on the coast, an impres-sive number of influentialpeople publicly announcedtheir support for CLAROand their commitment tocampaign for CLARO inthe elections.

CLARO Orihuela hasnow opened a headquar-ters office in one of Ori-huelas most importantstreets, co-ordinated byOfelia Cabrera, a graduatein politics and an officialat the Employment Office(SERVEF) in Elche.

Bob Houliston wel-comed this step in the de-

velopment of CLARO andsaid he was convincedthat with CLARO Ori-huela and CLARO on thecoast, the party couldelect a sufficient numberof councillors to ensurethat the next govern-ment of Orihuela shouldbe honest and efficient.


Ikea trafficA TRAFFIC study on theplanned development ofthe Rabasa area in Ali-cante, to site the new Ikeastore, has revealed it ex-pects to attract a daily av-erage of 70,686 visitors,which translates to about20,532 vehicles a day.

San Jose DayVILLAFRANQUEZA, Ali-cante, celebrated itspatron saint, San Jose,with religious eventsincluding the offeringof flowers and a foodcollection for the poor.

Cold snapFOLLOWING recent tem-peratures hitting 30C insome areas, the CostaBlanca was plunged intowinter again last weekwith storms and unstableweather, and highs of only15C in Alicante.

NEWS EXTRA

RESTORATION of 190 metres of Lor-cas medieval city wall has been com-pleted.

Work on five towers and five stretch-es of wall has been carried out with aninvestment of 1.5 million, with around

80 per cent being financed through theEuropean Regional Development Fund.

The historical heritage is one of themain attractions for tourists to the cityand parts of the wall date back to theeighth century.

Historic wall rebuilt

COSTA BLANCAhotels have report-ed in the first twomonths of theyear, a total of 2.4million overnightstays, an increaseof 5.5 per centover the same pe-riod in 2014.

The growth wasmainly due to thestronger perfor-mance of domestictourism which in-creased its num-ber of overnightstays by 9.7 percent.

The figurescome as thetourist board is inGothenburg, Swe-den, to take partin the Day ofSpain.

Overnightstays

grow onCostaBlanca

Coastal political party goesinland to Orihuela City

NEWS 21EWNwww.euroweeklynews.com 26 March - 1 April 2015 / Costa Blanca South

By Gemma Quinn

THREE people are cyclingfrom Barcelona to GranAlacant in a bid to raisemoney for charity.

Robert Hazel, RichardMills and Karen Grundekenare due to complete the562km challenge ar-riving in Gran Alacanttomorrow (Friday).

The Euro WeeklyNews spoke withKaren as the trio werein Benicassim. Afterthree days of cycling in tor-rential rains they werestocking up on dry clothingbefore making the 75.6kmjourney to El Puig: Thereis already talk of doing an-other one, joked Karen.

Robert, Richard andKaren are members of theTimes Square On YourBike Club started byChristopher Farncombe

and GavinM a r t i n .

Robert asked the group tojoin him to raise funds forThe Teenage Cancer Trustin memory of Stephen Sut-ton who died of cancer lastyear at the age of 19.

Roberts wife Liz was histeacher in year 12 and shewas behind organising theride which was to takeplace in November last

year. Sadly she suddenlypassed away in Octoberand the ride was cancelled.

Roberts daughters Jilland Zara have joined asthe support team.

You can pledge yoursupport at the welcomeparty on Sunday at TimesSquare above Dialprix,from 4pm or visithttps://www.justgiving.com/timessquarecycleclub.

Three cycling for theteenage cancer trust

CHARITY CYCLE: Ready for the offin Barcelona.

NEWS 26 March - 1 April 2015 / Costa Blanca South 23EWNwww.euroweeklynews.com

FIVE local charities havereceived donations of200 each thanks to theTuesday Ladies Club.

The ladies who lunchhave once again openedtheir coffers and gener-ously donated a total of1,000 to the charities;DEBRA butterf ly chi l-dren; AECC; Paul Cun-ningham Nurses; K9 andthe Needy of San Ful-gencio. Representativesfrom the charities all re-ceived their cheques,thanking the group at

their weekly meeting atthe Hillside in urbanisa-

tion La Marina for theirgenerosity which wil lhelp them continue thevital work each charitydoes.

Established for around10 years, the ladiesgroup raises the fundsthrough their weeklysubscriptions which isused to subsidise daysout, trips and events, butonce or twice a year, alarge amount is also do-nated to local charities.

STEP into Spring fashion show takes place today(Thursday) at the Marjal Campsite, Crevillente from12.30pm.

There is still time to get down there and enjoy theshow and support the raffle being held to raise fundsfor the Elche Childrens Home.

There will also be entertainment by singer EmilyHullmann.

Ladiesdonate

Spring fashion

LADIES CLUB: Committee members donate 200 toeach of the five chosen charities.


THE monthly San LuisNeighbourhood Watchmeetings have gradu-ally been dealing morewith local residentialinformation and issuesand less with criminalactivity in the area aslocally reported inci-dents have decreased.

Therefore, the grouphas been renamed SanLuis Residents Meet-ings, incorporating anyNeighbourhood Watchmatters which arise.

A representativefrom Torrevieja TownHall will attend toanswer any concerns,questions and to giveadvice.

Meetings are open toSan Luis, La Siesta andEl Chaparral residentson the last Monday ofthe month at 4.30pmat Casa Ventura, SanLuis. The next meetingis on March 30.

SAN MIGUEL Bowls Club recently organised a funbowls match entitled San Miguel Bowls Club againstthe rest of the world featuring bowlers from aroundthe Costa Blanca.

The event raised 575 plus donations of milk fromthose involved, which has been donated to the ReachOut charity helping the homeless and needy in Torre-vieja.

Residentsmeetings

DONATION: Karolina and Jacqueline from ReachOut alongside Drew Gerrard (left) and AlanCampbell of San Miguel Bowls Club.

San Miguelv the world

EWN 26 March - 1 April 2015 / Costa Blanca South26 NEWSwww.euroweeklynews.com

Churchmuseum

A NEW museum is toopen in Totanas Igle-sia de Santiago churchtower. It will house his-torical items includingthe old church clock.

Market offMULAs Baroquemarket was can-celled at the week-end due to badweather. It has nowbeen rescheduledfor April 17-19.

No funPOOR weather forcedthe cancellation of afun day at the LoRufete multi-adventurepark organised by theCIAJ youth centre inTorrevieja. It has nowbeen rescheduled fornext Sunday.

NEWS EXTRA

JUST BRASS is lookingfor a musical directorto take charge of thefriendly band.

Formed in 2003, it isof a very high standardwith many top-classplayers having settledin the local area. Theyare popular performersat various local com-munity events through-out the year from of-fering Christmas Carolson the beach on Christ-mas Day at La Zenia toplaying at the StPatricks Day parades.

A third CD was madeat Christmas and aDVD is being planned,and a busy concertseason lies ahead.

The band is based inSan Miguel and inter-ested persons shouldcontact the secretaryvia the websitewww.JustBrass.org

AFTER helping AFA Alzheimers Asso-ciation raise 465 at Night With TheStars, Lets Rock Shows has again in-vited the charity to the Rock UrBootie show at Quesada CountryClub tonight (Thursday).

The evening will be packed withRock n Roll and energetic bandFrankie and The Booters, who havegained popularity during their Thurs-day afternoon sessions at the venue,will be on stage.

Formed by lead vocalist and exu-berant front-man Francis Symons,members of the four-piece band areall talented musicians in their ownright. Audiences have been amazedby the entertainment and superbsounds from Frankie and The Boot-ers. They now have their own Face-book page and are being managedfor future events by Jax Lawson ofLets Rock Shows.

Money raised through a raffle atthe event will go to the AFA charitywhich is completely funded by dona-tions to help them support sufferersand the carers of those affected by

the disease. Volunteers are so devot-ed that they take no expenses, soevery cent goes to the cause. Theyare desperately looking for morehelpers who could spare a few hoursto help this worthy cause raise mon-ey. If you can help in any way callMatilda Sanchez on 966 702 500 or

636 110 251.The final few tickets for the

event are now available by calling697 501 992 or [email protected]

Tickets cost 13 for Gold (mainhall) and 12 for Silver (restaurant)to include a meal.

Musicaldirectorwanted

ROCK SHOW: Frankie and The Booters playing in Quesada.

Rockin n Rollin forAlzheimers charity

NEWS 26 March - 1 April 2015 / Costa Blanca South 27EWNwww.euroweeklynews.com

JUST one month be-fore Jay Markwick sExplos ion UK tourk icks of f , he met upwith wor ld famousFarruqui to in Murc iaCi ty for a spot ofrefresher training.

Dancer Jay said: Forme this was an extra-ordinary training dayand a rare occas ion.The last t ime wetrained together I wasjust 16, so to reunitejust before my UK tourwas a specia l advan-tage. Farruquito is anastonish ingly gooddancer and has beenmy biggest inspirationso far.

Farruquito has beena fami l iar name indance across the worldfor over 25 years and

is often referred to asthe b iggest name inf lamenco. I t was nosurpr ise, therefore,that when he starredin the 2014 FlamencoFest iva l at the wor ldfamous Sadlers Wellstheatre of dance, Lon-don went wi ld wi thappreciation.

Fo l lowing in Far-ruquitos famous foot-steps, Jay Markwickstarted h is love ofdance at just sevenyears old and has notonly gone on to shad-ow Farruqui to s pro-gress, but has invent-ed h is own uniquestyle and fusion, whichis about to be receivedby thousands, for thef i rs t t ime across theUK.

Born in the UK butnow l iv ing on theCosta Blanca, Jay, whohas already performedacross Spain, in Jordanand China, is taking hisown dance company tothe Londons WestEnd.

At just 22 years ofage he is bel ieved tobe the youngest per-son ever to havechoreographed, styled,produced, directed andstarred in a perfor-mance that has madeLondons West End onits first UK tour.

What has long beenthe Costa Blancas bestkept secret is now hit-ting the UK as Jay andhis talented team pre-pare to wow Br i t ishaudiences.

Fancy footworkas dancers reunite


By Gemma Quinn

ALICANTE CITY has the best rep-utation on social networks as atourist destination on the CostaBlanca.

That s the conclus ion drawnfrom a study by a research groupat the University of Alicante (UA)which analysed more than300,000 messages on the socialnetwork Twitter over a period ofaround s ix weeks. The re-searchers gave Alicante a scoreof 19.1 for positive reviews andmessages about the city.

As a tourist destination, Elchecame second with 7.5 points andBenidorm was third for its tweetswith 6.5 points . Or ihuela andTorrevieja also received positivereviews.

Patricio Martinez, co-ordinatorof the research group, sa id acomplex computer system hadbeen put into place to depict andrecognise key words and mea-sure positivity and negativity.

Of the tota l number of mes-sages posted in recent weeks,more than 53,000 were recorded

as posi t ive, whi le only 15,000were negat ive. The remainingwere classed as neutral.

Alicante rates top forpositive tweets

ALICANTE CITY: Best reputation as a tourist destination on Costa Blanca.


NEW life satisfaction stud-ies have revealed howhappy people feel withtheir lives in Spain andthroughout the EU.

The surveys, carried outby Eurostat, found that inSpain young people weregenerally slightly happierthan older people. Menand women were equallysatisfied with their lives.

People in Spain had aslightly above average de-gree of satisfaction withtheir lives in comparison toother EU member states,with some of the least hap-py people living in Serbia,Greece and Portugal. Thehappiest nations, accordingto the survey, were theScandinavian countries andSwitzerland.

So what drives peopleshappiness? Good healthand not wealth, appar-ently, give the mostsatisfaction.

Its happydays inSpain

BRETT and NaghemehKing, who were detainedafter bringing their five-year-old son Ashya toSpain for brain tumourtreatment last year, saytheir son is now free ofcancer.

The Kings were held inprison in Madrid last sum-mer after taking their son

from hospital inSouthampton againstmedical advice, and, dis-agreeing with doctors,took it upon themselves toseek proton beam treat-ment abroad.

The couple were kept injail in Spain for more than24 hours before being re-leased when efforts to ex-

tradite them to the UKwere abandoned.

Ashya was then trans-ferred to Prague in theCzech Republic for protonbeam therapy.

Mr King told The Sunnewspaper on Monday(March 23) that a recentscan showed no evi-dence of the tumour.

Great news for braintumour boy Ashya

ASHIMA SHIRAISHI has con-quered a tough climb in Spain andmay have shattered the record asyoungest female to climb the Cat-alonian route Open Your Mind Di-rect in only 10 minutes.

The 13-year-old girl from NewYork is believed to have complet-ed the most technically difficultrock climb ever by a female. Its

also believed to be the hardestpiece of rockface ever masteredby anyone of her age.

The experienced climber, whogot started in her sport at sevenyears of age by scaling boulders inManhattans Central Park, spentfour days studying the route be-fore finally making her record-breaking ascent of the notoriously

hard climb in Santa Linya, Catalo-nia. Ten minutes later she had be-come a double world record hold-er and an inspiration to femaleclimbers. She told The Guardian:Im happy, my hands arewrecked. It just shows the waygirls can excel in climbing.

13-year-old girl breaks climbing recordAshya is cancer free, his parents have revealed.

TOUGH GOING: Ashimamade the climb in Catalonia.


SEPARATED and divorced fathersand mothers gathered at the Plazade Cibeles in Madrid on SpanishFathers Day (March 19) calling fora legal change to give preferenceto joint custody.

People at the rally, called by as-sociations from across Spain, car-ried signs declaring Not with Mum,not with Dad, with both of them,Joint custody now, No more or-phans with l iving parents, andDont allow Dad to be deleted fromchildhood.

Association representatives ex-plained that their aim was to putan end to the generalised standardhabit of awarding custody to oneparent, which is still used in mostSpanish courts.

Children are born under jointcustody then a judge comes alongand leaves them fatherless for noapparent reason, said Miguel Ro-driguez from the Custodia Paterna(Paternal Custody) association.

Maite Disdier, President of Se-gundas Mujeres e Hijos por la

Igualdad (Second Wives and Chil-dren for Equality), said that theaim of the rally was to get politi-cians attention and stressed thatstep-families, like her own, shouldbe allowed equal rights and rela-tionships without the financial set-

backs caused by high maintenancepayments.

Disdier believed children had theright to joint custody. Kids shouldbe allowed to l ive and grow upwith their dad and their mum, shesaid.

Parents protest fornew custody laws

TWO people have been fined 380 each by the Nation-al Court for insulting and threatening the King of Spainand his family.

One was sentenced for insulting the royals on Twit-ter and the other for carrying a poster stating death tothe Bourbons at a Republican rally.

The sentences were given after an agreement wasreached with the Public Prosecutors Office, which ini-tially requested fines of 6,500.

The prosecution declared that Jose Javier PL spent amonth spreading insulting and threatening messagesabout the royal family on his Twitter account, whichhad 172 followers, while the other culprit, Silvia MN,was broadcast on television carrying the incriminatingposter at a rally in A Corua.

Royal insulters get offwith reduced fines

TARGETED: King Felipe with Queen Letizia.

RALLY CALL: Demonstrators want both parents to have custody.

EWN 26 March - 1 April 2015 / Costa Blanca South34 NEWSwww.euroweeklynews.com

FRENCH businessman JacquesBenoit Fiocconi has been award-ed 8,400 in compensation forbeing imprisoned in Spain whileaccused of drug smuggling.

The consignment was in factmade up of soap products.

According to a report from theFrench site Societe.com, themistake was due to Fiocconiscriminal past. His nickname isThe Magician (Le Mage), andhe once worked for a time withthe cartels and Colombian druglord Pablo Escobar.

He was arrested in Spain withhis father in November 2011 onsuspicion of smuggling cocaineto Corsica. But the 350-ki lo-gramme cargo of soap, whichwas purchased from a factory inGirona, was simply on its way tothe family perfume shop on Cor-

sica where the Fiocconis live. He was released 10 weeks lat-

er when the toxicology reportsrevealed that cocaine was notpresent in the samples they hadreceived for testing.

Fiocconis time in prison afterthe wrongful arrest promptedhim to claim 83,000 in compen-sation for economic losses and

psychological damage. However,the judge awarded him just8,400.

His father, Laurent, remainedin prison in France because ofhis connections and alleged in-volvement in drug traffickingand the transport of 400 kilo-grammes of cocaine betweenCorsica and Marseilles.

WANTED British crimi-nal, Shane Walford,was arrested in theCanary Islands lastSaturday as a result ofOperation Captura.

Walford had previ-ously been imprisonedfor manslaughter in2010 after killing fire-man Paul Gibbons out-side a bar in Coventry.He was released afterserving half of his sen-tence, but this was lat-er rescinded when hebroke the terms of hisrelease.

Spains highlevel ofharmfulproducts

SPAIN reports some of the high-est levels of hazardous productsin the European Union, accord-ing to a European Commissionreport released on Monday.

The report found Spainrecorded the third highest num-ber of alerts regarding danger-ous products, receiving 280calls in total. The country wasonly exceeded in complaints re-ceived by Hungary with 291alerts, and Germany with 296.

The higher level of reportsdoes not necessarily mean ahigher risk to the public; itcould also represent a higherlevel of awareness of danger-ous items on the streets andhigher standards in the con-sumer market.

Dangerous toys made upmore than a quarter of al lalerts, with clothing and fashionitems representing the secondgreatest risk group.

Frenchman winsdamages after dope

on a rope error

CLEAN CARGO: Suspected cocaine was in fact soap.

Killer heldin the

Canaries

Shane Walford


By Robert BarnesTHE local cinema in Pilarde la Horadada is pleasedto announce that in addi-tion to its weekly films inEnglish, the cinema is nowhosting concerts along withperformances by localclubs and schools.

The events will all take-place on the newly-con-structed staging.

The recently-built bar inthe foyer is proving popu-

lar, with beers, wines andcoffee on sale, both beforecurtain-up and after theshow. And for those with asweet tooth, ice creams,popcorn and chocolatesare also available.

Diego Garcia Fructoso,who runs the cinema,would welcome ideas fromthe local community as tothe films they would like towatch on the big screen.Diego can be contacted

by emailing [email protected]

The cinema shows filmson Thursday evenings at7pm and at 5pm everySaturday. Tickets cost just5. The 100-Year-Old ManWho Climbed Out the Win-dow and Disappeared isthis weeks film, on tonight(Thursday) and Saturday.Next Thursday and Satur-day, the scheduled film isThe Imitation Game.

Community cinemaCINEMA FANS: Diego and volunteer Tish are pleased the cinema can now hostconcerts and community events.


A TOTAL of 4,516 people have beencaught not wearing a seatbelt bySpanish traffic authorities in just oneweek of a surveillance campaign.

Of the total, 2,824 were driversand the remaining 1,692 were pas-sengers, with 287 children under theage of 12 also spotted not using cor-rect car-seats, 70 of them travellingin the front seats of cars.

The authorities carried out spotchecks on 416,917 vehicles duringthe campaign, which brought to lightthe limited influence campaigns havehad on the number of people whostill fail to buckle up. The General

Traffic Authority (DGT) stated in thefirst two months of this year, 21 of

the 109 people who died in traffic ac-cidents were not wearing seatbelts.

FAMOUS Spanish chefFerran Adria wasamongst several cooksgetting behind a push topromote sustainable fish-ing in the worlds oceans.

The campaign, which isled by NGO Oceana, isaiming to promote moresustainable, smaller fishsuch as anchovies, sar-dines and mackerel inrestaurants throughoutEurope.

Many of these relative-

ly abundant fish are ig-nored on menus, whilelarger, more popularspecies such as tuna andswordfish are severelyover-fished or facingcommercial extinction inmany regions.

The campaign, knownas Save The Ocean,Feed the World waslaunched at an exclusiveevent held at the BasqueCulinary Centre on Tues-day.

Adria joinssustainable

fish campaign

People in Spain are stillreluctant to buckle-up

BUCKLE UP: People are still reluctant to wear seat belts.

BANCO DE MADRIDS re-quest for a creditors meet-ing - an overture to bank-ruptcy proceedings - hasbeen put on hold.

A Madrid court handlingthe case suspended theapplication until SpainsBank Restructuring Fund(FROB) decides whetherthe bank should be liqui-dated or restructured.

Banco de Madrid - not tobe confused with scandal-hit Caja Madrid whichmerged with other savingsbanks to create Bankia in2011 - is the small Spanishoffshoot of Banca PrivadadAndorra (BPA).

The latter was accusedin a US government reportof money-laundering onbehalf of government offi-cials in Venezuela and

organised crime groups inChina and Russia.

This triggered a 76 mil-lion run on Banco deMadrid, the board walkedout and Spains supervisorBanco de Espaa inter-vened, appointing an inter-im board which suspendedoperations and requesteda creditors meeting.

FROBs entry into thepicture responds to legalformalities rather than thelikelihood of rescue, saidinsiders who are conver-sant with the case.

Banco de Madrids situ-ation does not imperilSpains financial system,they said, and FROB willleave the way clear forthe Madrid court to goahead with liquidating thebanks assets.

IN 2011 there were 8,800 chickenfarms in Spain and now there are5,000.

Andalucia, the Valencian Commun-ity, Murcia and Galicia are worst-hit,with a knock-on effect on hatcheriesand feed suppliers.

An average 11 million chickens areslaughtered each week in Spainwhere even in 2011 the ministry ofAgriculture calculated that it cost

around 2.70 to produce a kilo ofsupermarket chicken.

Feed is now cheaper, but energyand labour costs have risen andintensively-raised supermarket chick-en sells at between 2.15 and 2.20a kilo or - in a minority of cases - ataround 2.30.

With these prices they cannotcover overheads, producers com-plained.

Chickenfeed profits for farms

FINANCE, BUSINESS & LEGAL 26 March - 1 April 2015 / Costa Blanca Southwww.euroweeklynews.com 39EWN

inanceA EURO WEEKLY NEWS 6 PAGE SPECIAL SECTION // WWW.EWNBUSINESS.COMF

Job choicesSPANIARDS would hap-pily work for Google,LOreal and Mercadonain that order, they toldhuman resources con-sultants, Adecco. TheSpanish chain alsoheaded job preferencesin the supermarket sec-tor.

WiFi on highBUDGET AIRLINEVueling will be thefirst European air-l ine to offer freehigh-speed broad-band on fl ights.Passengers will re-ceive a 20 megabyteper second connec-tion provided byTelefonica.

usinessBextra

legal&

Temporary haltto bankruptcy

AMANCIO ORTEGA, founder ofInditex and the Zara label, has afortune topping 60 billion.

Recently relegated from thirdto fourth on the Forbes Rich Listhis fortune had not shrunk, themagazine stressed, but the eurohad depreciated against the dol-lar.

Now the Galician, president of

the worlds largest retail clothingchain, is richer than ever withsales increasing by 8 per centlast year.

Days before Bloomberg put a59.55 billion price tag on Orte-gas 59.2 per cent holding of1.848 billion Inditex shares.Two days later this increased to60.75 billion when the shares

jumped to a record 28.81.In October 2012 Inditex

shares rose above 100 for thefirst time but last summer a five-for-one share split made themmore affordable to encouragetrading. The strategy paid offand the present 28.81 is equiv-alent to a pre-split value of morethan 144 per share.

STAT OF WEEKbusiness SALARIES continued to fall in2014, with an average wageof 1,991.84 a month duringthe last quarter of the year,0.2 per cent below the same

period in 2013.

Ortega richer than ever

INDITEX: Zara is part of the worlds largest retail clothing chain.

GUOZ

HONG

HUA

/ SHU

TTER

STOC

K.CO

M

FINANCE, BUSINESS & LEGALEWN 26 March - 1 April 2015 / Costa Blanca South www.euroweeklynews.com40

British Amrcn Tobacco 3,655.25 -1.75 -0.05 68,170.57

British Land Co 869.50 2.50 0.29 8,841.38

BT Group 467.18 1.78 0.38 37,907.46

Bunzl 1,870.50 -7.50 -0.40 6,285.84

Burberry Group 1,836.00 -40.00 -2.13 8,341.46

Capita Group (The) 1,190.50 -0.50 -0.04 7,882.76

Carnival 3,136.50 -64.50 -2.01 6,914.69

Most AdvancedProthena Corporation plc $ 38.66 9.43 32.26%Ctrip.com International, Ltd. $ 57.58 11.44 24.79%Vascular Biogenics Ltd. $ 5.75 1.01 21.31%Vitae Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $ 12.36 1.70 15.95%Cnova N.V. $ 6.65 0.81 13.87%Gordmans Stores, Inc. $ 4.91 0.55 12.61%Tuniu Corporation $ 14.31 1.55 12.15%Calithera Biosciences, Inc. $ 15.75 1.68 11.94%SAExploration Holdings, Inc. $ 3.14 0.32 11.35%VelocityShares 3x Long Silver ETN linked $ 21.12 2.11 11.10%Cumulus Media Inc. $ 2.68 0.25 10.29%

Most DeclinedErickson Incorporated $ 4.63 0.71 13.30%Veracyte, Inc. $ 7.31 0.99 11.93%VelocityShares 3x Inverse Silver ETN $ 53.1227 7.0643 11.74%Nexvet Biopharma plc $ 8.46 1.04 10.95%Tecumseh Products Company $ 2.62 0.28 9.66%1st Constitution Bancorp (NJ) $ 10.63 1.12 9.53%Vital Therapies, Inc. $ 24.86 2.51 9.17%Arotech Corporation $ 3.32 0.33 9.04%TRACON Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $ 14.20 1.40 8.97%Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. $ 14.63 1.43 8.90%Zafgen, Inc. $ 46.94 4.40 8.57%

CCOO MM PPAA NN YY PPRR II CC EE (( PP )) CCHH AA NN GG EE (( PP )) %% CCHH GG.. NNEE TT VVOO LL UU MM EE

MMM 3M 166.49 +0.83 +0.50% 4.4MAXP American Express 82.70 +1.16 +1.42% 9.3MAAPL Apple 125.90 -1.59 -1.25% 68.7MBA Boeing 154.50 +0.39 +0.25% 4.5MCAT Caterpillar 81.19 +1.10 +1.37% 8.2MCVX Chevron 107.03 +2.28 +2.18% 14.1MCSCO Cisco 28.44 +0.18 +0.64% 37.6MKO Coca-Cola 40.65 +0.63 +1.57% 31.6MDIS Disney 108.43 +1.06 +0.99% 8.7MDD E I du Pont de Nemours and Co 74.34 -0.17 -0.23% 8.5MXOM Exxon Mobil 84.54 +0.13 +0.15% 36.1MGE General Electric 25.40 +0.07 +0.28% 50.6MGS Goldman Sachs 193.13 +3.16 +1.66% 3.5MHD Home Depot 117.49 +2.33 +2.02% 8.4MIBM IBM 162.88 +3.07 +1.92% 9.0MINTC Intel 31.31 +0.57 +1.85% 64.8MJNJ Johnson & Johnson 102.40 +0.71 +0.70% 12.4MJPM JPMorgan Chase 61.75 +0.55 +0.90% 18.4MMCD McDonald's 97.05 +1.07 +1.11% 10.0MMRK Merck 58.58 +0.37 +0.64% 26.1MMSFT Microsoft 42.88 +0.60 +1.41% 71.9MNKE Nike 101.98 +3.66 +3.72% 14.9MPFE Pfizer 34.25 +0.10 +0.29% 59.2MPG Procter & Gamble 84.74 +1.36 +1.63% 22.6MTRV Travelers Companies Inc 109.73 +0.62 +0.57% 4.4MUTX United Technologies 119.46 +0.08 +0.07% 8.2MUNH UnitedHealth 119.14 -1.62 -1.34% 7.2MVZ Verizon 49.56 +0.26 +0.53% 26.3MV Visa 67.41 +0.60 +0.90% 15.4MWMT Wal-Mart 83.24 +1.72 +2.11% 12.4M

Centrica 256.70 0.90 0.35 12,710.45Coca-Cola HBC 1,194.00 -7.00 -0.58 4,376.13Compass Group 1,191.50 -11.50 -0.96 20,061.82CRH 1,835.00 -5.00 -0.27 14,992.54Diageo 1,917.00 -7.00 -0.36 48,396.26Direct Line Insurance 327.80 -1.00 -0.30 4,932.00Dixons Carphone 422.20 -5.00 -1.17 4,918.05easyJet 1,860.00 -10.00 -0.53 7,427.79Experian 1,148.50 5.50 0.48 11,314.34Fresnillo 698.50 -8.00 -1.13 5,206.15Friends Life Group 432.80 -0.40 -0.09 6,104.01G4S 296.80 -2.90 -0.97 4,650.13GKN 370.35 -5.25 -1.40 6,236.95GlaxoSmithKline 1,624.25 -10.75 -0.66 79,522.82Glencore 297.80 -1.50 -0.50 39,188.69Hammerson 686.75 1.75 0.26 5,372.42Hargreaves Lansdown 1,187.00 -8.00 -0.67 5,668.11Hikma Pharmaceuticals 2,148.50 -36.50 -1.67 4,340.11HSBC Holdings 583.45 -1.25 -0.21 112,357.75Imperial Tobacco Group 3,110.50 5.50 0.18 29,717.67InterContinental Hotels 2,664.00 -34.00 -1.26 6,370.44International Consolidtd 590.75 -2.75 -0.46 12,100.86Intertek Group 2,562.00 -8.00 -0.31 4,147.00Intu Properties 356.65 1.45 0.41 4,677.41ITV 255.35 -1.45 -0.56 10,353.94Johnson Matthey 3,361.50 -27.50 -0.81 6,944.66Kingfisher 368.80 -1.20 -0.32 8,697.88Land Securities Group 1,275.00 -1.00 -0.08 10,087.19Legal & General Group 291.70 -1.60 -0.55 17,428.09Lloyds Banking Group 80.81 0.18 0.22 57,548.64London Stock Exchange 2,565.00 -18.00 -0.70 8,961.89Marks & Spencer Group 533.75 -3.75 -0.70 8,789.49Meggitt 561.00 -13.50 -2.35 4,595.68Mondi 1,330.50 -17.50 -1.30 4,950.41Morrison (Wm) Suprmrkts 205.30 -1.00 -0.48 4,817.27National Grid 888.05 -1.15 -0.13 33,436.08Next 7,205.00 -70.00 -0.96 11,121.55Old Mutual 230.50 -1.20 -0.52 11,368.52Pearson 1,481.50 -10.50 -0.70 12,232.65Persimmon 1,689.00 1.14 0.07 5,176.12Prudential 1,742.50 -5.00 -0.29 44,871.96Randgold Resources 4,831.50 -43.50 -0.89 4,517.26Reckitt Benckiser Group 5,965.00 5.00 0.08 42,772.21Reed Elsevier 1,170.50 -2.50 -0.21 13,296.73Rio Tinto 2,901.00 -13.50 -0.46 41,215.30Rolls-Royce Group 984.00 -3.50 -0.35 18,494.78Royal Bank of Scotland 355.65 -0.65 -0.18 22,681.69Royal Dutch Shell 2,072.25 8.25 0.40 80,414.78Royal Dutch Shell 2,178.75 7.75 0.36 52,981.31Royal Mail 444.50 -1.90 -0.43 4,464.00RSA Insurance Group 432.95 -3.05 -0.70 4,427.52SABMiller 3,679.50 -30.50 -0.82 59,871.56Sage Group (The) 476.80 -3.50 -0.73 5,171.80Sainsbury (J) 272.00 -0.10 -0.04 5,208.57Schroders 3,280.00 -5.00 -0.15 7,424.84Severn Trent 2,077.00 9.00 0.44 4,955.61Shire 5,592.50 -92.50 -1.63 33,543.64Sky 1,024.00 -8.00 -0.78 17,740.26Smith & Nephew 1,152.00 4.00 0.35 10,262.71Smiths Group 1,199.50 -4.50 -0.37 4,752.84Sports Direct Interntnl 643.00 -6.00 -0.92 3,884.04SSE 1,558.50 4.50 0.29 15,347.67St James's Place 983.50 5.00 0.51 5,082.79Standard Chartered 1,112.50 41.00 3.83 26,494.89Standard Life 479.10 -7.50 -1.54 11,651.02Taylor Wimpey 154.20 -0.50 -0.32 5,033.11Tesco 245.05 0.20 0.08 19,889.15Travis Perkins 1,985.00 1.00 0.05 4,934.27TUI AG 1,170.00 -9.00 -0.76 N/AUnilever 2,884.50 -15.50 -0.53 37,220.32United Utilities Group 957.00 8.00 0.84 6,471.12Vodafone Group 227.05 -1.20 -0.53 60,507.98Weir Group 1,807.00 -34.00 -1.85 3,928.35Whitbread 5,395.00 -35.00 -0.64 9,854.17Wolseley 4,215.00 0.00 0.00 10,961.07WPP Group 1,572.50 -7.50 -0.47 20,785.56

NASDAQCLOSING PRICES MARCH 23

DOW JONESCLOSING PRICES MARCH 23

3i Group 502.25 5.55 1.12 4,829.09

Aberdeen Asset Mngmnt 474.25 -1.35 -0.28 6,333.16

Admiral Group 1,552.00 11.00 0.71 4,294.61

Aggreko 1,571.00 -7.00 -0.44 4,041.55

Anglo American 1,084.00 -16.50 -1.50 15,370.37

Antofagasta 712.25 -2.25 -0.31 7,043.95

ARM Holdings 1,197.50 -4.50 -0.37 16,879.79

Ashtead Group 1,132.00 -0.28 -0.02 5,697.85

Associated British Foods 3,026.50 -11.50 -0.38 24,051.06

AstraZeneca 4,837.50 -9.50 -0.20 61,228.20

Aviva 568.25 -1.75 -0.31 16,825.21

Babcock International 987.50 -8.00 -0.80 4,999.37

BAE Systems 543.00 -2.50 -0.46 17,202.31

Barclays 257.43 2.13 0.83 42,125.25

Barratt Developments 530.00 -1.50 -0.28 5,272.26

BG Group 877.60 -6.40 -0.72 30,182.25

BHP Billiton 1,529.00 -10.00 -0.65 32,504.79

BP 445.08 -5.92 -1.31 82,266.05

CCOO MM PPAA NN YY PPRR II CC EE (( PP )) CCHH AA NN GG EE (( PP )) %% CCHH GG.. NNEE TT VVOO LL UU MM EE

LONDON - FTSE 100CLOSING PRICES MARCH 23

CCOO MM PPAA NN YY PPRR II CC EE (( PP )) CCHH AA NN GG EE %% CCHH GG.. VVOO LL UU MM EE

CCOO MM PPAA NN YY PPRR II CC EE CCHH AA NN GG EE NNEE TT // %%CCOO MM PPAA NN YY PPRR II CC EE CCHH AA NN GG EE %%CCHH AA NN GG EE VVOO LL UU MM EE

US dollar ................................................................1.07930Japan yen ..............................................................129.555Switzerland franc..............................................1.05830Denmark kroner ................................................7.45424Norway kroner ..................................................8.68494

0.72698 1.37554Units per

MAKE THE MOST OFYOUR MONEY WITH USSee our advert on opposite page

currenciesdirect.com/la-zenia Tel: +34 965 994 830

FINANCE, BUSINESS & LEGALEWN 26 March - 1 April 2015 / Costa Blanca South www.euroweeklynews.com42

Fixed income investments - how to find incomeAdvertising Feature

AFTER Lehman Brothersfailed in 2008, the priceof corporate fixed incomesecurities (or corporatebonds as they are alsoknown) crashed, reach-ing the bottom aroundMarch 2009.

Since that time returnsfrom corporate bonds,with the exception of2013, have been wellabove the long-termaverage. As an example,the iShares Sterling Cor-porate Bond Fund (a lowcost tracker) has grownby 90 per cent, which is11.29 per cent perannum compound oversix years.

The investment issuecreated by this almostuninterrupted growth incorporate bond prices isthat there is now l itt leinvestment growth po-tential. On the downside,especially for the morevolati le longer dated

bonds, is that potentiallosses now far outweighany growth potential.

Whatever your view offuture interest ratemovements, existingyields on many fixed in-come securities are nowunattractive. Using theiShares Sterling Corpo-rate Bond Fund as an ex-ample again, the currentincome to maturity isunder 3 per cent per an-num, while the equiva-lent Euro fund is offering0.9 per cent per annum.

Despite the poor futureprospects for many west-ern corporate and gov-ernment bonds, thereremain opportunities topurchase higher incomeinvestment grade bonds.

As an example, againusing iShares, theirEmerging Market LocalGovernment Bond Fundis offering an income tomaturity of 6.22 per

cent. Part of the reasonfor the income disparitybetween these and west-

ern bonds, which carry asimilar default r isk, isthat they are denominat-

ed in local emergingmarket currencies andthese have suffered be-cause of US$ strength.

While the Dollar mayremain strong for sometime, it is unlikely toappreciate significantlyagainst what is nowarguably an under-pricedbasket of emerging mar-ket currencies.

Sterl ing and Euro in-vestors may well enjoycapital appreciation fromappreciating emergingmarket currencies withincome levels muchabove western debt.

The key point is thatthe post 2008 bondgrowth party for westernbonds is virtually overand for those requiringincome, emerging marketdebt currently offersgreater return potentialfor l itt le added risk atcurrent prices.

As an independent

financial adviser I wouldnot normally recommendmore than 10 per cent ofa client portfolio be in-vested in this asset classand Local CurrencyEmerging Market debt isnot suitable for all.

Key to providing in-vestors with the optimumopportunity of meetingtheir risk adjusted finan-cial goals is the ability toimpartially select from afull range of researchedassets and best of breedfunds.

Established in 1898,The Fry Group is nowexpanding in Spain andwe are committed toraising advisory stan-dards.

If you would likefurther informationcontact Mark Daviesmark.davies@thefry

group.co.uk ortelephone 952 768 450.

KEY: The ability to impartially select assets and funds.

FINANCE, BUSINESS & LEGAL 26 March - 1 April 2015 / Costa Blanca Southwww.euroweeklynews.com 43EWN

ANOTHER survey has just been re-leased claiming that breastfed babiesgrow up to have higher IQs and earnmore money.

The study followed 3,500 newbornsfor 30 years. At the age of 30 all theparticipants were given an IQ testand the breastfed babies scored thehighest.

The researchers maintain that thepresence of long-chain saturatedfatty acids (DHAs) found in breastmilk are essential for brain develop-ment - and that the longer the childis breastfed the more benefits experi-enced.

I can just feel my good fr iend

Claires blood boiling as I gaze overthis most recent breastfed good -formula bad study. Claire is probablyone of the most intell igent womenthat I know - shes a director of amult inat ional company, a historyscholar and an all-round smart cook-

ie, who didnt receive even a drop ofbreast milk her entire life. And herbrother, who also wasnt fed breast-milk, works for the British intelligenceagency, MI5.

As she would quite rightly argue,i t s important to a lso consider inthese studies the intelligence of theparents and their social status, aswell as point out that genetics play amajor part in a childs IQ.

That said, of course, breastfeedingis a beautiful thing. It helps to pro-tect babies against stomach bugs,chest infections, asthma and aller-gies, while also helping new mumslose their extra baby pounds more

quick ly. And i f a woman wants tobreastfeed - thats great! Go ahead!

But what isnt fair is the guilt thatthese studies inst i l in expectantmothers. Breastfeeding is a choice.But for some mothers its just not anoption, so they shouldnt be made tofeel that their child will grow up tohave lower inte l l igence and lesspotent ia l to get a good job thanthose that are breastfed.

Whether your child ends up being ahighflying business entrepreneur orthe CEO of Microsoft has more to dowith love, nurture and a good educa-tion than it has to do with a bottle orbreastfeeding.

Milking an intelligent debate

JanePlunkett

A look at finance for females

[email protected]

Loose change

Advertising feature

EWN MEDIA GROUP

PROPERTY Look no further for a home: 16-page supplement starts here...

TRUSTWE DO!

our advertisers

w w w . e u r o w e e k l y n e w s . c o m

MARTINEZ DE LA CASA Architects isa leading and highly reputable prac-tice operating across Alicante, Murciaand Almeria provinces.

The company has been recognisedand awarded within Spain andabroad for its engaging approach topublic environments and innovativedesign.

As members of the Forensic Ex-perts of the Murcia College of Archi-tects (COAMU) the company providesfull surveys and assessments, ap-praisals, valuations, property reportsand assistance with judicial tribunals.Owner Antonio Martinez said they domore legalisation documents and ret-rospective licences than any othercompany within these areas: We areexperts in retrospective licenceswhich are quick and affordable. Wehave issued over 5,000 between ret-

rospective, occupation/habitationlicences, appraisals and Energy Per-formance Certificates (EPC).

For property owners in the Almeriaarea, certain conditions are neededto obtain a retrospective licence orantiquity certificate for extensions orpools: the extension or pool need tobe over six years old, except for pro-tected areas; the extension or poolhave not received any fine and theproperty needs to have the titledeeds and owners NIE.

By having a retrospective licence/antiquity certificate you avoid puttingoff potential buyers. You also needthis document for updating the titledeeds (escritura) at the notary.

Martinez de la Casa Architects willarrange an appointment and deliverthe certificate stamped by the OfficialCollege of Architects within 7-10

days. The cost of a pool licence isnow 190 + IVA and for extensionsand pool 270 + IVA. Only one cer-tificate is needed to cover all alter-ations done on the property.

If your solicitors are studying yourcase, ask them to contact Martinezde la Casa and they will make thewhole process easier, faster andcheaper for you. They also offer dis-counts for groups or if you require anEPC, Occupation Licence or Retro-spective Licence done at the sametime. Martinez de la Casa Architectsare the number one company in EPCcertificates (121 inc IVA) and forAFOs (from 550 + IVA).

Martinez de las CasaCalle Floridablanca, no 38

Aguilas, MurciaTel: 968 446 077

Visit: www.martinezdelacasa.com

Award-winning architects

www.euroweeklynews.com 26 March - 1 April 2015 / Costa Blanca South 45EWNPROPERTY SUPPLEMENT

EWN 26 March - 1 April 2015 / Costa Blanca South46 www.euroweeklynews.com PROPERTY SUPPLEMENT

THE summer will soon be hereand it is imperative to keep coolwhile at home or work and nowthere is a more cost effectivesolution to help reduce airconditioning costs; glass tinting.

With Cool Glass Tinting, thisis now possible with their highquality film coating offering awide range of benefits includingreducing heat; material andfurniture fading; glare and airconditioning costs.

As well as reducing theamount of heat coming in fromwindows, it reduces materialand furniture fading and glare.It also increases safety, securityand privacy and is maintenancefree. It can be applied to allwindows of any shape and sizewhether that be in homes;conservatories; glass curtains;offices; commercial premises;vehicles and boats. Cool GlassTinting also holds all thenecessary and legal certificates

for tinting vehicle windows.Cool Glass professional tinting

helps to combat solar heat gainand keep your property cooler.Adding window tinting alsohelps to improve the look andfeel of your house. It allowsnatural light in, but stops up to76 per cent of solar energy,

reducing 85 per cent of glareand 99 per cent of UV rays. Thisin turn lowers the need for airconditioning offering real costsavings to the customer.

Solar heat and UV light canalso cause damage and fadingto furniture and upholstery.Solar Guard film helps protect

your valuable assets fromexpensive sun damage.

Cool Glass Tinting ownerMark Williams is fully qualifiedand trained with UltimateTinting in the UK before movingto Spain over six years ago.

Mark operates a competitivepricing policy and offers free,

no obligation quotations andunlimited advice on the type oftinting required. Mark said:Many people find out the hardway that applying window filmis not as easy as you wouldthink. Inferior products boughtfrom DIY shops are part of theproblem. He adds: I have thetraining, experience, materialsand equipment to ensure thewindows are spotless. Theslightest blemish, even so muchas a hair, can ruin the process.

Solar Guard film applied byMark by Cool Glass Tinting iseasy to clean, requires nospecial treatment and lasts for10 years or more. During thattime there is no reduction in theefficiency of the product interms of solar heat reduction orUV protection. So call or emailnow for more information.

Cool Glass TintingTel: 608 100 610 Email [email protected]

Stay cool and protect your furniturefrom UV rays the whole year round

Advertising feature

COOL GLASS: Before tinting. COOL GLASS: After tinting.


THE sale of homes in Spain dropped by10.9 per cent in January in comparisonwith the same time last year, accordingto reports from El Economista, to a totalof 21,320 transactions, in conjunctionwith the most recent data from theGeneral Council of Notaries.

However, the notaries stated thatdespite the drop in the monthly figures,the data reflects a stabilisation in homesales.

By type of dwelling, apartment salesshowed a year-on-year reduction of 11.5per cent, mainly due to the sharp drop insales of new apartments (-31.8 percent), while sales of secondhandapartments fell by 7.6 per cent, year-on-year, and sales of individual familyhomes reduced by 8.4 per cent.

With regard to prices, the averageprice per square metre of the homespurchased in January was 1,234, whichrepresents a decrease of 6 per cent overthe month of January 2014. Thisreduction is due both to the drop in priceof apartments (-5.6 per cent year-on-year), as well as to the reduction in the

price of family homes (-6.4 per cent).Within the category of apartments, the

price per square metre for secondhandapartments stood at 1,347 (-3.2 percent year-on-year), while the price ofnew apartments plummeted by -12.5per cent, year-on-year, to 1,624 persquare metre.

In January there were also 5,230transactions on other types of real estate(-20.1 per cent year-on-year), of which37 per cent of the transactions related toland or building plots. The average priceper square metre of these transactionsreached 167 (+9.9 per cent).

The number of mortgage loans for theacquisition of a property increased by9.9 per cent in January, to 9,657 loansgranted, due mainly to the increase inthe granting of loans for the acquisitionof a dwelling (+11.4 per cent). Theaverage value of the mortgage loans forthe acquisition of a home reached126,989 (+9.2 per cent) and theaverage capital loaned for the rest of thereal estate transactions amounted to164,838 (+0.8 per cent).

In addition, mortgageloans earmarked forconstruction registeredgrowth of 21.8 per cent inJanuary, year-on-year, to291 new loans. Theaverage value of theseloans was 256,381,which represents a year-on-year decline of 5.6 percent, due to the sharpdrop in the averagecapital loaned for theconstruction of buildingsother than housing (-58.8per cent).

Stabilisation fromthe notaries mouth

HOME SALES: Despite a drop in monthly figures, data reflects stabilisation.

FIFTEEN per cent of European investors placedSpain as their favourite investment destination,behind only the United Kingdom, which waschosen by 31 per cent of the investors surveyed,according to a recent study carried out byleading commercial property and real estateservices consultants, CBRE

This demonstrates that the improvement inthe Spanish economy is being reflected in theopinion of real estate investors, which puts thecountry at the same level as Germany for thefirst time.

Investors rate Spain


SELL4LESSSPAIN.COM offersproperty owners an alterna-tive to paying high estateagent fees when selling propertyacross Spain and on the islands.

With prices starting at just199 Sell4LessSpain.com willadvertise your property for saleon all of the biggest and busiestproperty portals such as Right-move Overseas, Zoopla Over-seas, Prime Location, HomesOverseas, OnTheMarket.com andHUISenAABOD.nl as well as theirown website for maximum expo-sure to potential buyers.

There are NO sales commis-sions - the achieved sales price isall yours!

Sell4LessSpain.com is the sen-sible approach to selling your

prop-e r t y ,saving youthousands onthe cost of tradi-tional estate agent fees.

However, Sell4LessSpain.comdo more than just advertise yourproperty, they will match it topotential buyers.

What is matching? Not only do you benefit from

potential purchasers enquiringabout your specific property, butSell4LessSpain.com also pass on

details ofpeople who have searched for aparticular type or registered gen-erally for property informationwith criteria that match your ad-vert. Therefore, all Sell4LessSpain.com properties advertisedare helping to sell yours!

D ot h e y

have acontract?

There is no contract. Sell4Less

Spain.com is not an estateagent, they are an online adver-tising service and you are there-fore free to instruct an estateagent as well; however, mostsellers use Sell4LessSpain.com asa way of avoiding paying high re-al estate agent fees and followup their leads themselves.

What are the various servicesthey offer?

Sell4LessSpain.com offers toadvertise your property for eitherthree or six months with optionsfor Standard or Premium listingson the portals that supportPremium listings which arereported by Rightmove to bring inup to 35 per cent more interestthan a Standard listing. Prices toadvertise your property withSell4lessSpain.com start at just199 for three months Standardservice up to 439 for six monthsPremium service.

They are excited to be the firstto offer this exciting and highlyneeded service to Spanish prop-erty owners.

www.sell4lessspain.com

An exciting new lowcost way to sell

property in Spain

Advertising feature

NEW SERVICE: Selling your property and saving on costs.


IN the boxing match that has becomethe long-running battle between rentalproperty owners and the government,which wants to regulate them, a newchampion has stepped to the fore.

The controversy over plans to regulatethe privately-owned rental marketappears to be set for a 15-rounder.Especially now as the CNMC, (NationalCommission for Markets andCompetition) has jumped into the ringon the side of the owners. The CNMC,which is basically the Spanish version ofthe Monopolies Commission, isconcerned that one of the main reasonsunderlying the initiatives to limit privateholiday home rentals is the competitionthey represent to the hotel sector. It

adds that the move to regulate touristrentals in Madrid is obstructing freecompetition and restricts customerchoice.

The commission in going toe-to-toewith Madrid, saying the public should beallowed to choose whatever kind ofaccommodation they want as opposedto being forced into officially approvedestablishments. For this reason it hasdelivered a blow to Madrids belly bylodging an appeal to Decree No.79/2014 10 July, which regulates touristproperties in the region. It is alsoappealing against Article 17.3 whichstates: Only rentals of five days or morewill be allowed, any length of time lessthan that will be deemed illegal.

Fighting forthe rentalproperty

ownerGLOVES ON: Spains Monopolies Commission steps into the ring.

SOLAR IN SPAIN is aboutto launch the latest solarenergy technology: theSolmate Thermodyn, asolar panel that works 24hours a day regardless ofthe weather and it does nothave to be installed on yourroof. It can be placed on abalcony, on a wall or eveninside a carport, meaningsolar energy is now a viableoption for apartments withno roof space!

The Thermodyn will belaunched at Solar in Spainsnext Introduction to SolarEnergy seminar which willtake place on April 9 at theInn on the Green BowlingClub in Javea. In addition tothe launch there will beinformation available onhow to generate your ownelectricity and to use it tolower your bills.

Presentations will bemade about the variousapplications for renewableenergy, and Solar in Spainstaff will be on hand to

answer all your questionsregarding solar electricity,solar pool heating, solarwater heating, solar venti-lation systems and woodpellet heating systems.

Not swimming in yourpool yet? Find out how youcan join Solar in Spainscustomers by heating yourpool with solar energy andcomfortably swim in itevery year from early Apriluntil the end of October.

Have you switched offyour central heating systembecause its too expensiveto run? Solar in Spaincustomers have reducedtheir central heating bills byover 50 per cent bychanging to wood pelletheating systems.

Government grants areavailable for solar energyhot water, biomass boilersand off-grid solar electricsystems certificated by theSpanish Government andinstalled by accreditedinstallers. Solar in Spain is

one of the few accreditedcompanies that have beenworking for many yearswith the governmentsenergy department toobtain generous grants fortheir clients. Solar in Spainhas also introduced afinancial package inassociation with a nationalbank offering 100

euro weekly news - costa blanca south 26 march - 1 april 2015 issue 1551

Documents